The high school football season is almost here, which means many rivalries will be rekindled on the gridiron over the next couple of months.

Some rivalries, however, are taking a sabbatical.

The Battle for the Barrel between Dickson County and Henry County will not take place this season or the next, which means the winner of last year's contest, the Patriots, will hold the barrel for two years.

The reasoning that these two will not get together for that period has a lot to do with the TSSAA reclassifying schools earlier this year. When Dickson County moved up to Class 6A, and Henry County remained in 5A, their respective regions changed.

The two schools tried to work out some kind of date, but the open dates that both teams had were just too different to move anything around.

“When the TSSAA reclassified, it bumped us up. They stayed down, and it changed regions for us,” said Dickson County athletic director Jay Powlas.

“It made things difficult for us to find a spot in the schedule to play them that met with our open dates. When you get your region schedule, you draw to get an open date. We have to have that open date, because we play Creek Wood for week zero. It’s one of those deals where it was either we drop Creek Wood and pick up Henry County, because the other dates just didn’t fall into where we could play them."

A mainstay rivalry in the Middle Tennessee area since the late 70's, this will be the second time this decade that the two teams will have to take a break from facing one another. The two didn't play in 2013 or 2014, when Dickson County was moved up to Class 6A.

Powlas believes that the rivalry can and will be renewed once again in a couple of years.

"I would really like to see us get them back on the schedule," said Powlas.

"Growing up here, and when I went to school, they were our rivals. I consider them our biggest rival. I like that barrel being passed back and forth. I like going there because it’s hostile environment. It’s a quality opponent, and you see their fans are tailgating under big tents. It’s a great environment, and I hope we can get them back on the schedule."

Reach Andy Simmons by email jasimmons@gannett.com or on Twitter @AndyDHTN